Wrapping It Up

When I sat down to write my final post it amazes me all the beautiful experiences we have had over the past year and how fast time has passed.  We have decided to rent a townhouse in Scottsdale, AZ for a year to see if we are sure this is where we want to stay put.  Many things went in to our decision...job opportunities, taxes, airport access...It has been a very difficult decision.  If we had unlimited money, didn't have to work and didn't care what kind of airport access we needed we may have chosen a different location but I feel good about this choice.  This past weekend Matthew and Elli got married and we had a fabulous time!  So excited Elli Klancic is officially on the team.  After the wedding we went to a resort with the Borchardt family,  Mickey and Larry Woolums and the cheesehead Hind family from Wisconsin.  We had a week of fun and games.  It made me realize that our friends from home will always be our friends.  I can not see Peggy and Nina for months and we don't skip a beat. I'm hoping that we will have lots of visitors and I know that we will be making frequent trips back to see our family.

There are many things that I feel I have learned while taking our time off to roam.  The biggest thing is that Chris is my lobster.  We spent days upon days with only us and I loved all of it.  He is the most patient person in the world.  I would occasionally freak out and he just drove on...I guess this has happened our entire life.  We started off having a very organized plan and realized quickly that we wanted to wing it, which we did.  We slept in Walmart parking lots, desolate desert and next to waterfalls.  It really took time to realize things will always work out. This was a life lesson I needed to learn.  We are very fortunate to have been able to do this.  Lauren, Matthew and Hannah have all been supportive of our adventure.  My Mom is unable to express her sentiments regarding this, but I learned from her the importance of embracing adventure.  She traveled to Africa on a safari all by herself after my dad died.  Her and my dad traveled in an Airstream every winter to a different location.  I got those genes.  We have met the most interesting, amazing people on our travels.  People that our lives in Aurora, IL would have never intersected.  We have made great friends a long the way.  We have met up with Lisa and Jeff Berg all over the country.  Jeff actually drove us to Matthew's wedding.  The couple that still touches my heart was a father, son and wife in Florida.  Dad was an injured veteran, son was this 6 foot plus teenager that was at his dads side assisting with anything he needed.   They loved to fish and did so all day long.  When we were leaving they came over and gave us some handmade lures and invited us to stop by their home in Tennessee for a big steak.  If you watch the news you begin to think people are just not nice.  I beg to differ, we met more crazy, nice, thoughtful, helpful, fun people on our travels.
Thanks to all of you who said "go for it"!  I now say to you "go for it".